Peer to peer lending #investments

Peer to peer lending as part of an investment strategy reduces risk. I’m still lending through Zopa at an interest rate of 4.2% through Zopa Classic. There are three different types of account including an access account paying 3.5% which beats the accounts offered by the banks easily. You don’t get FSA protection with Zopa though. I’ve been investing through Zopa for 5 years now and have accumulated a nice return.

The market this week

Overall, the stock market was fairly flat this week. The top 100 companies in the FTSE 100 seemed flat yesterday but the FTSE 250 which suffered a lot because of the Brexit vote made substantial gains. Today those gains are being reversed and the FTSE 100 is up .39%.

Beating the market

As a private investor, I try to beat the FTSE all share index and I manage to do that most of the time except when there is political fallout from things like the Brexit vote. I continued recovering from the referendum vote in August gaining around 5%. Taylor Wimpey, Premier Foods and Solo Oil all made good gains. GlaxoSmithKline seems to be losing ground after making spectacular gains on the back of the lower value of the pound. I did consider selling GSK this week but it does pay a good quarterly dividend and although the pound has been making gains GSK is still a value investment.

Solo Oil

Solo Oil still seems to have a lot of potential and their cash flow would appear to be about to get much better. The share price has made solid gains since the beginning of August but speculators day trade it and so the price bounces around all over the place. The market makers have increased spreads to as much as 20% too which makes life hard for private investors.

All the oil shares look attractive at the moment and Premier Oil is one I have on my radar and could be a good investment if the oil price shows signs of upward movement.

Banking

Banking shares have picked up since the Brexit vote but have been subdued and suffered as a result of the interest rate cut. As a long term investment they look good value, but I don’t expect much movement in the short-term.

Peer to peer

Peer to peer lending through Zopa is paying me over 4% with less risk than the stock market and so I see that as a good investment with relative safety. It might be worth increasing my stake in Zopa.

That’s all for this week. Investing is risky so diversification is key to limiting that risk.